The Graduate Center’s Teaching and Learning Center (GCTLC) and GC Digital Initiatives (GCDI) are pleased to announce the hiring of two Open Educational Technologists who will support open pedagogical projects at the GC and throughout CUNY. Their work will primarily center on support for teaching with the CUNY Academic Commons, Manifold Scholarship, and Vocat, three…

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The CUNY Academic Commons (CAC), in collaboration with the Graduate Center’s Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) and the Graduate Center Library, seeks applications for up to ten CUNY Academic Commons Open Educational Resources (OER) Faculty Teaching Fellowships for the Spring 2018 semester. Full-time, adjunct, and Graduate Teaching Fellow faculty who will be teaching at a…

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Last month, we invited the entire CUNY Academic Commons Community to give us feedback by responding to a survey. We would like to thank those of you who responded giving us a great deal of information that we will put to work making the Commons even better. Please stay tuned for the results of that…

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“Social Paper: Retooling Student Consciousness” Scholarly and Research Communication, Vol 6, No 4 (2015) – Erin Glass Glass’ article in Scholarly and Research Communications lays out the initial concepts and goals that later framed Social Paper, the marquee feature of Commons 1.9. Of first importance to SP is the facilitation of student “ownership” of the ongoing…

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“DiRT receives grant for partnerships with Commons In A Box, DHCommons” DiRT – Digital Research Tools – May, 2014 The University of California, Berkeley and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York are pleased to announce that the Mellon Foundation has generously provided a $150,000 grant to fund a partnership between the…

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“Commons in a Box wins 2013 Award for Best Digital Humanities Tool or Suite of Tools“ Digital Humanities Awards – Highlighting Resources in Digital Humanities, 2013 We are proud to announce that Commons in a Box received the “Best Digital Humanities Tool or Suite of Tools” award from Digital Humanities Awards – Highlighting Resources in…

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“Openness, value, and scholarly societies: The Modern Language Association model“ College and Research Libraries, December, 2012 Kathleen Fitzpatrick lays out the MLA’s plans to ensure public access to the group’s published works, and includes a nice mention of the CUNY Academic Commons and the collaborative effort to build networked communities designed to help members connect, collaborate,…

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MLA to Launch Scholarly Communication Network October, 2012 In her Library Journal article, Meredith Schwartz reports that the Modern Language Association, under the directorship of Kathleen Fitzpatrick, is building its MLA Commons based on “Commons in a Box” software.C-Box, as @kfitz notes: “… is working toward a federated commons-of-commonses … developing greater connections across scholarly societies as…

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“BuddyPress: One Plugin, Five Communities” Smashing Magazine, September 26, 2012. Siobhan McKeown examines five BuddyPress implementations, including the CUNY Academic Commons: ”The Commons is in the lucky position of having a lead developer who is one of the core committers to BuddyPress. … As BuddyPress’ core becomes more stable and lean, the team at CUNY…

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“THEME SONG FOROUR TIME: SLF, OWS, CUNY AC” January 8, 2012 – Larry Hanley – Babylon Is Burning A serendipitous moment, with Stiff Little Fingers’ “Alternative Ulster” playing in the background, an email about OccupySFSU on the screen, and a popup tweet announcing “Commons in a Box,” allows Hanley’s sharp eyes to focus on alternate worlds. …

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“Death Knell for the Paywall” December 2, 2011 In its weekly podcast, the Center for History and New Media (CHNM)  at George Mason University’s Digital Campus featured  “Commons in a Box” as one of three projects that are taking on corporations and developing their own educational technology. …a free (funded by the Sloan Foundation) academic…

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“Commons in a Box” & the Importance of Open Academic Networks” Nov 28, 2011- Audrey Watters – Inside Higher Ed Audrey Watters reflects on the CUNY Academic Commons’ “Commons in a Box” grant, and notes how open paradigms emphasize a community’s shared ownership of a project, and “work” for academics: …open source versus proprietary technology…

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“MLA Parternering with CUNY in Important Scholarly Communications Initiative: Commons in a Box” Nov 28, 2011- Jason Baird Jackson, Associate Professor of Folklore and American Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. Jason Baird Jackson sees the potential of partnering directly with universities in the development of tools, protocols, strategies, and projects in the scholarly communications: This project…

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“100+ Amazing Sites Powered by WordPress and BuddyPress” ThemeShock – June, 2011 In their section called “Clean by Structure,” the authors praise CUNY Academic Commons for its careful organization and clean, three-column interface: …designed to support faculty initiatives and build community through the use of technology in teaching and learning…

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“The CUNY Academic Commons: Building the Social University” – March 2, 2011 – Kristjiana Gong – In Yale University’s Collaborative Learning Centerblog, Kristjiana Gong describes a meeting with the Commons’ own Matt Gold and Boone Gorges in which the Commons was showcased as a way to build a “social university.” …transparency in development and support…

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February 26, 2011 – Benjamin Allen Campbell over at The College of Education at the University of Florida gave a great shout-out to the Commons, noting how it is: …a digital hub for the disparate faculty who are scattered around 23 colleges in the 5 Burroughs” and how it “has grown up in a very big way.

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“The CUNY Academic Commons: fostering faculty use of the social web“ February, 2011 – Matt Gold and George Otte The authors published a case study in the journal On the Horizon, chronicling the steps they took to develop and implement the Commons. … open and participatory forms of academic social spaces within the CUNY system encourage…

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“15 Go-To Places for WordPress and BuddyPress” WPMU.org, 2011 Siobhan Ambrose The CUNY Academic Commons was commended for its BuddyPress work: As well as releasing a number of significant BuddyPress plugins, they also post regularly with BuddyPress Tips and Hacks. As a large BuddyPress network they produce some insightful and useful content that you should…

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“Mashing Up the Institution: Teacher as Bricoleur” The Radical Teacher, 2011 Larry Handley explores how technology can either reinforce centralization, standardization, and rationalization, or open up “new spaces and practices of creativity, knowledge, and communications.” He cites the Commons as an example of how networks can be hacked together for learning rather than profit: …the…

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“The 20 Most Outstanding BuddyPress sites of 2010“ December, 2010 In BPInspire, Jerome Degl’innocenti recently honored the CUNY Academic Commons by putting it in its list of the Top 20 BuddyPress sites! The sites featured … each created a strong community, demonstrate excellent custom development and are rich in design creativity.

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“Internal Social Networks May Help Break Down Institutional Silos” October 1, 2010 – Richard Nantel Brandon Hall Research’s Newletter/BlogWorkPlace Learning Today featured the CUNY Academic Commons efforts to use social networking to break down institutional silos. Institutional silos are a reality of all large organizations; whether in academia, the private sector, or government. Internal social…

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“New College Social Networks, Unlike Facebook, Foster Academic Interaction” October 10, 2010 –Travis Kaya In its “Technology” column, The Chronicle of Higher Education featured CUNY Academic Commons and University of Pennsylvania’s Open Learning Commons as premiere “learning communities.” Universities are turning to social networking to create online learning communities that mix serious academic work, and connections among…

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“CUNY Social Network Mixes Scholarship With Facebook-Style Friendship” September 29, 2010 –Travis Kaya CUNY Academic Commons was featured in “Wired Campus” column of the Chronicle for Higher Education. Rather than setting the Academic Commons in stone, the committee [on Academic Technology] decided that it would leave the platform design—and the source code—open for user input,…

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“Never Mind the Edupunks; or, The Great Web 2.0 Swindle” July/August, 2010 – Brian Lamb andJim Groom In their article in Educause, the authors discuss the future of educational technology and note the accomplishments of the CUNY Academic Commons. …we offer a shout-out to the jaw-dropping CUNY Academic Commons … which seamlessly integrates the open-source…

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“WordPress a Better LMS” March 18, 2010 – David Parry CUNY Academic Commons was one of three examples listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Prof Hacker” column about how to use WordPress as a LMS tool. This is a really advanced WordPress set-up … an example of what could be done University wide if…

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